Mission-Minded

Core Values: Week 6

Good morning, Church. If you have your Bibles, I hope you do, go ahead and make your way to Genesis 12. That will be our launching off point this morning.

We are going to be all over scripture in our time together.

I preached on the importance of advancing the Mission of God back in February.

We are to share and spread the gospel every where we go.

“God has given us two hands — one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for sharing.” — Billy Graham

“It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.” — Charles H. Spurgeon

“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.” — Hudson Taylor

“There is no greater communication of love than proclaiming the gospel of God.” — Alistair Begg

In my honest and accurate opinion, the most important thing we can do as a Christian is to listen to Christ and then go and do what He tells us to do.

and He tells us to go and make disciples of all nations.

When I was a kid I remember looking at one of those big world maps in a classroom. The kind that hangs on the wall and rolls up when the teacher is done with it.

We don’t have that in classes anymore. We should. They were awesome.

And as a kid, the only place on that map that really mattered to me was the tiny spot in the upper right in the state of Florida. Thats where I was. Everything else felt far away and not important. Abstract. Almost irrelevant. I mean those maps would put the United States square dead in the middle and have to the same continents on the left and right side.

You grow up and realize most people still live like that.

We still think we are the most important thing in the world.

That Toby Keith song is our life anthem.

I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about i Wanna talk about number one, oh my, me my.

Its my world and ya’ll are just living in it.

I’m the main Character and ya’ll are just the supporting roles.

And having that world view. Shrinks the world and makes its incredibly small.

The most important things become:

Our schedule. Our house. Our job. Our problems. Our little corner of the map.

And if we’re not careful, even our Christianity can become that small.

We think God’s primary concern is my life going smoothly, my family doing well, no health issues, no financial struggles, my church being comfortable.

But when you start reading the Bible carefully, you realize something pretty quickly.

None of that is Biblical.

God’s vision has never been small.

Here is the big idea for this morning: God has always been moving His salvation outward to the nations through Christ, and He now calls His church to join Him.

From the very beginning, God’s plan has always involved the whole World.

Not just one town. Not just one people group. Not just one country.

All nations. For All People who put their trust in the Lord. No one is disqualified by where they’ve grown up or what they’ve done. No one is too far gone.

And the surprising thing is that this wasn’t a New Testament idea.

This goes all the way back to the very first promises God ever made to His people.

When Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying the Lord and eating from the Knowledge of good and Evil, God was moving history forward to bring sinful humanity back into relationship with God.

God cannot and will not over look sin. We all love to hear about how God is Love but He is much more than that.

God is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. Before anything existed, God was. Long after this world passes away, God will still be. Psalm 90:2 — “From everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

God is self-existent. He depends on nothing outside Himself for life or being.

God immutible. He is unchanging. His character, His purposes, and His promises never shift. The God who spoke in Genesis is the same God who reigns today. Malachi 3:6 — “For I the Lord do not change.”

God is Omnipresent. He is everywhere present. There is no corner of the universe where God is absent. You cannot outrun Him, escape Him, or hide from Him. Psalm 139:7–10

God is all-knowing. Nothing surprises Him. Which is really comforting to me. Because I suprise myself all the time with some of the dumb things I do.

God is all-powerful. Omnipotent. There is nothing too difficult for Him. What God wills, God accomplishes. Jeremiah 32:17

God is sovereign.Omniscient. He rules over all things. Kings rise and fall, nations come and go, but God remains in complete authority over history. Daniel 4:35

God is holy. He is completely pure and completely set apart from sin. There is no darkness in Him at all. Isaiah 6:3

God is righteous. Everything He does is right. His judgments are perfect and just. Psalm 11:7

God is merciful. He does not give sinners the judgment they deserve when they come to Him in repentance. Psalm 103:8

God is gracious. He gives favor and blessing to those who have not earned it. Ephesians 2:8–9

God is patient. He is slow to anger and long-suffering with sinners. 2 Peter 3:9

God is good. Everything He does flows from His perfect goodness. Psalm 34:8

God is faithful. He always keeps His word. Every promise He has made will come to pass. Lamentations 3:22–23

God is truthful. He cannot lie and He never deceives. What He speaks is always true. Titus 1:2

God is wise. His plans are perfect and His ways are higher than ours. Romans 11:33

God is jealous for His glory. He will not share His rightful worship with idols. Isaiah 42:8

And above all, God is glorious. Everything that exists ultimately exists to display His greatness. Isaiah 43:7

And God is also just. Sin will not ultimately go unpunished. God’s justice ensures that evil does not have the final word. Because God is just, He cannot and will not over look sin.

To overlook sin means he is not perfectly just.

and since He is perfectly just— death came upon the scene when Adam and Eve sinned against a holy God.

But that wasn’t the only thing that came out of it . Women will receive pain from labor, Marriage will experience tension and broken power dynamics.

The work will be back breaking and difficult.

But there is also hope. A Promise.

This is the first Truth: The Promise: The Serpent Crusher

But we also get this Genesis 3:15. This is God speaking to the Servant

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Genesis 3:15 is traditionally called the Protoevangelium

This is known as the first gospel.

Before Adam and Eve even leave the garden, God announces that one day a descendant of the woman will come who will crush the serpent.

The conflict between the serpent and the seed of the woman becomes the storyline of the rest of Scripture.

So the question the reader should begin asking is simple: Who is this offspring going to be?

As Genesis continues, the Bible begins narrowing the line.

First it moves from all humanity to one family.

In Book of Genesis 12:1–3, God calls a man named Abram and makes a covenant promise to him. God tells Abram that He will make him into a great nation, that He will bless him, and that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Read it with me: Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is where the storyline becomes clearer. The promised offspring who will defeat the serpent will come through the line of Abraham. What God promised in seed form in Genesis 3 now begins to take shape in Genesis 12. The redeemer who will defeat evil will come from Abraham’s descendants.

I need you to clearly see this because its vital.

From the very beginning, God’s election was never meant to be narrow. When God chose Abraham, He did not choose him instead of the other nations. He chose him for the sake of the nations.

Israel was never meant to become a cul-de-sac of grace where God’s blessing simply stopped. They were meant to be a conduit through which that blessing would flow outward. God intended to use this one family as the means through which the knowledge of Him would spread to the entire world.

That promise tells us something important about the heart of God. God’s plan was never limited to one ethnic group or one geographic region. His purpose has always been global.

Notice the wording carefully. God does not say, “I will bless you so that you can simply enjoy the blessing.” He says, “I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.” In other words, the blessing God gives is meant to move outward.

When the text speaks about “all the families of the earth,” it is using language that refers to peoples or nations. It is not merely talking about political borders on a map. It is talking about every nation, tribe, and tongue under heaven. Even here in Genesis, long before Israel becomes a nation, God is already revealing that His salvation is meant for the whole world.

So when we talk about missions, we are not talking about a New Testament invention. Missions is not something the church came up with later. The heart of missions is already present in the promise God made to Abraham.

The real question is not whether missions is in the Bible. The real question is how we have sometimes managed to overlook something that God made so clear from the very beginning.

God even reinforces this promise of being a blessing to all nations to Abraham after He took His son, Isaac up on Mount Moriah to be sacrificed. When the Angel of the Lord appeared, and stopped Abraham from Sacrficing His son The Angel ( when you see the phrase Angel of the Lord, its a preincarnate picture of Christ, meaning its Jesus before He was born of a Virgin) said in Verses 17 and 18 of Chapter 22. I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

So through this nation is going to be a blessing to all people.

The promise in a blessing to all nations found in Genesis 22 and Genesis 12 is building upon the protoevanglium of Genesis 3:15.

So, God has given us a little piece of the puzzle of the coming serpent crusher.

Secondly, we see the Plan: A Servant for the Nations

When you move from Genesis into the prophets, you begin to see how God intends to fulfill the promise He made to Abraham. Grab your Bible and make your way to Isaiah 49.

The book of Isaiah is a prophetic book that reveals God’s judgment on sin and His promise of redemption through the coming Messiah.

Isaiahwas a prophet in Judah in the 8th century BC during a time of spiritual decline, political instability, and growing foreign threats. The first half of the book (chapters 1–39) largely warns Judah and the surrounding nations that because of their idolatry and rebellion against God, judgment is coming—through empires like Assyria and eventually Babylon. Yet even in these warnings, Isaiah repeatedly reminds the people that God remains faithful to His covenant and will preserve a remnant.

The second half of the book (chapters 40–66) shifts strongly toward comfort and future hope. God promises restoration after exile and introduces the mysterious Servant of the Lord, who will suffer for the sins of the people and bring salvation not only to Israel but to all nations (Isaiah 53). Throughout the book, Isaiah emphasizes God’s holiness, His sovereignty over history, and His plan to ultimately renew creation.

Isaiah 49 is one of the Servant Songs in Isaiah (along with Isaiah 42, 50, and 52–53). In this chapter the Servant of the Lord speaks, and God explains the Servant’s mission. The chapter shows that the Servant’s work will restore Israel and bring salvation to the nations.

In Book of Isaiah 49:6, the Lord speaks about His coming Servant and says something that should give us pause..

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (ESV)

The Servant will certainly restore Israel, but God says that mission alone is too small. The Servant will also bring salvation to the entire world.

Think about that for a moment. Israel was God’s covenant people. They were the nation through whom the law came, the temple stood, and the prophets spoke. And yet God says that if the Servant only restored Israel, the mission would still be too small.

God’s redemptive ambition has always been bigger than one nation. His salvation was always meant to reach the nations.

You see this theme repeated throughout Isaiah in what are often called the Servant Songs. In chapter 42, the Servant is described as a light for the nations.

As we just read in chapter 49, the Servant brings salvation to the ends of the earth.

And by the time you reach chapters 52 and 53, you discover how that salvation will come—through a Servant who suffers for the sins of others.

In other words, the blessing God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12 will ultimately come through this suffering Servant.

And the nations are not an afterthought in that plan. They are written into the mission from the beginning.

One theologian put it well. John Stott once wrote, “We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.” That is exactly what Isaiah is showing us. The God of Israel has never been a tribal deity confined to one people group. He is the Lord of all the earth, and His salvation is meant to reach every nation.

I remember years ago talking with someone who assumed the Old Testament was mostly about Israel and the New Testament was where the idea of reaching the world finally appeared. They said something like, “Missions really starts in the New Testament.”

But when you read Scripture carefully, you realize that is not true. Missions does not begin in the New Testament. The mission of God runs from the opening pages of Genesis all the way through Revelation.

Salvation did come to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles, but it has always been offered through the same promise and the same Savior.

Sometimes people assume that God has two separate plans of salvation. One for Israel and another for the nations. But when you read the Bible carefully, that idea simply does not hold up.

Paul addresses this directly in Romans 9–11. Those chapters are some of the most discussed and sometimes misunderstood passages in the New Testament. Paul is wrestling with a difficult question. If Israel was God’s covenant people, what do we make of the fact that many Israelites rejected Jesus as the Messiah?

Paul’s answer is careful and important.

First, he explains that not everyone who is ethnically descended from Israel is part of the true people of God.

In Romans 9:6 he writes, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.”

In other words, belonging to the people of God has never ultimately been about physical descent alone. It has always been about faith in the promise of God.

Then in Romans 11 Paul uses an image that helps us understand how Jews and Gentiles relate within God’s redemptive plan. He describes the people of God as a single olive tree.

Some of the natural branches, representing unbelieving Israel, were broken off because of unbelief. And wild branches, representing believing Gentiles, were grafted in. But Paul is very clear about something that often gets missed.

There are not two trees.

There is not a Jewish tree and a Gentile tree.

There is one tree.

Romans 11:17 says, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree…” (ESV)

Notice the language. Gentile believers are grafted into the same tree. They do not form a separate people of God. They are brought into the same covenant promises that flow from the root that began with Abraham.

Now it is important to say this carefully. The olive tree is not exactly the church in the narrow New Testament sense. The tree actually existed before the church age. The root of that tree is the covenant promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What Paul is describing is the one covenant people of God that grows out of those promises.

The church today is simply the present gathering of believers—Jew and Gentile—who have been grafted into that same tree through faith in Christ.

This is exactly what the apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3:28–29 (ESV):

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

That passage is incredibly important. Paul is saying that the dividing wall that once separated Jew and Gentile has been torn down in Christ. The determining factor is no longer ethnicity or heritage. The determining factor is faith in Jesus Christ.

Those who belong to Christ are counted as Abraham’s offspring because they share in the same promise God made at the very beginning.

In other words, the olive tree represents the covenant people of God across redemptive history. The root is the Abrahamic promise. The trunk is the unfolding story of Israel. The branches now include both believing Jews and believing Gentiles who have been united through faith in Christ.

This reminds us that the entire Bible tells one cohesive story of redemption. The Scriptures are not a collection of disconnected religious writings. They are one unified narrative that moves steadily toward the coming of the Messiah.

From Genesis 3:15, where God promises the offspring who will crush the serpent, to Genesis 12, where God promises Abraham a blessing for the nations, to the prophets like Isaiah who speak of a Servant who will bring salvation to the ends of the earth, the Bible consistently points forward to Jesus.

All sixty–six books of Scripture ultimately testify to the same reality: Jesus is the Messiah. He is the promised offspring of Abraham. He is the true Son of David. He is the Servant of the Lord described in Isaiah. And through Him, the promise that began with Abraham has finally reached the nations.

John MacArthur explains it this way: “There is one people of God, one olive tree, and one way of salvation. Jews and Gentiles alike are saved by grace through faith in the Messiah.”

And Paul goes even further. He reminds the Gentiles not to become arrogant about their place in the tree. In Romans 11:18 he says, “remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

The root of that tree goes all the way back to the promises God made to Abraham.

Which means the story has always been moving toward the same destination.

The people of Israel are not saved one way and Gentiles another. No one has ever been saved apart from faith in the promise of God that ultimately points to Christ.

An Israelite in the Old Testament that worshippped the Baals and Asheroths are not in Heaven because they were God’s Chosen People to bring about the fulfillment of the Serpent Crusher. and If you disagree with that, you don’t understand the gospel. Period.

Adrian Rogers once said it simply and clearly, “There are not many roads to heaven. There is one road, and His name is Jesus.”

That was true for Abraham. It was true for Isaiah. It was true for the faithful remnant in Israel. And it is true for us today. And it will be true until Christ Returns.

Everyone who is reconciled to the Father comes the same way. Through the Servant Isaiah spoke about. Through the Messiah who would come from the line of David. Through Jesus Christ.

The same gospel that saves a Gentile in Jacksonville is the same gospel that saves a Jew in Jerusalem.

One Savior. One gospel. One people of God.

And that is exactly what Isaiah was pointing toward when he wrote that the Servant would be a light for the nations and that God’s salvation would reach to the ends of the earth.

3. The Fulfillment: Jesus the True Servant

When you come to the New Testament, the identity of the Servant Isaiah spoke about becomes unmistakably clear.

In Gospel of Luke 2, an elderly man named Simeon is standing in the temple when Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus in. Simeon had been waiting his entire life for the Messiah, and when he holds that child in his arms he begins quoting the prophet Isaiah. He says that this child will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”

That language is not accidental. Simeon is reaching all the way back to Isaiah’s prophecy about the Servant who would bring salvation to the nations. In that moment he recognizes that the child in his arms is the fulfillment of everything the prophets had been pointing toward.

Jesus is the descendant of Abraham through whom the nations will be blessed. Jesus is the Servant Isaiah described who would be a light to the Gentiles. Jesus is the suffering substitute Isaiah spoke about in chapter 53.

What the Old Testament promised, Jesus fulfills.

And that means the cross was never a tribal event. It was never meant for one people group or one nation. The cross was always global in its reach. Jesus did not come merely to restore Israel politically or nationally. He came to redeem people from every nation.

You see the outcome of God’s plan when you turn to Book of Revelation 7:9. John describes a scene in heaven where a multitude is standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb. And he says this is a multitude that no one can number, made up of people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.

That verse gives us a glimpse of where the whole story is going. The promise that began in Genesis, the prophecies spoken through Isaiah, and the work accomplished by Christ will ultimately result in a redeemed people gathered from every corner of the earth. God is not building a small, regional kingdom. He is redeeming a people from every people group. From Every, Nation, Tribe, and Tongue.

I actually had a funny moment related to this a couple of summers ago. One morning a Jehovah’s Witness knocked on my door. He started explaining his beliefs and eventually said that according to the book of Revelation only 144,000 people would ultimately be saved. He said it very confidently.

Now he did not know whose door he had just knocked on.

So I started asking him some questions and walked him through what the text actually says. I pointed him to Revelation 7 and showed him that after the passage mentioning the 144,000, John immediately describes something else. John sees a multitude that no one can number from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and worshiping the Lamb.

It was at this point, he realized that the conversation was not going to go the way he expected. He politely tried to wrap things up and walk away. The only problem was that I kept walking with him down the sidewalk, still talking about what the Bible actually says. I was not trying to be rude, but I did want him to see that Scripture paints a much bigger picture than the one he had been told.

Eventually he smiled, shook my hand, and made his escape.

We have to understand this- The gospel is not restricted to a tiny, exclusive group. The work of Christ is gathering a countless multitude from every tribe and language and nation.

As Adrian Rogers once said, “The gospel is not good news unless it gets there in time.” In other words, the message of Christ was never meant to stay confined to one place. It was always meant to move outward.

And that is exactly what we see throughout Scripture. From the promise to Abraham, to the prophecies of Isaiah, to the work of Christ, and ultimately to the vision of heaven in Revelation, the story is moving in one direction. God is gathering a people from all nations who will stand before the throne and worship the Lamb.

That is why before God ascended to the right hand of the Father.

Jesus Gave us the Great Commission.

4th truth- The Commission: Therefore, Go

By the time you reach the end of the Gospel accounts, something important happens. The promise that began in Genesis, the prophecies spoken through Isaiah, and the salvation accomplished through Christ now become a command given to the church.

In Gospel of Matthew 28:18–20, after His resurrection, Jesus gathers His disciples and says:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (ESV)

Those words matter. Jesus does not say, “Go make disciples of your town.” But you should definetly make disciples there. He does not say, “Go make disciples of people who already look like you, talk like you, and live near you.” He says, “Go make disciples of all nations.”

By now that language should sound familiar. It is the same trajectory we have been tracing through the whole Bible. In Genesis, God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. In Isaiah, God declared that His Servant would be a light to the nations and that salvation would reach the ends of the earth. And now the risen Christ turns to His followers and tells them to go and make disciples of all nations.

In other words, the church is not inventing a new mission. We are participating in a promise that God set in motion thousands of years earlier.

Missions is not simply a program that churches add to the calendar. It is not a side ministry reserved for a handful of especially adventurous Christians.

Missions is woven into the very purpose of God. The God who made the promise to Abraham, who spoke through the prophets, and who sent His Son into the world is the same God who now sends His people.

That means a church that has no concern for the nations has lost sight of the heart of God.

I remember a conversation I had with someone a few years ago who said something like this: “I just don’t really see the point of missions. There are already plenty of churches here, and there are plenty people in need here.” I understood what she meant. If you stay within the small circle of your daily life, it can feel like the gospel is everywhere, and there are people in need everywhere.

But I don’t believe its an either or.

But the moment you step back and look at the world as a whole, you realize that millions of people still live and die without ever hearing a clear explanation of the gospel. Entire people groups still exist where the name of Jesus is not known. Suddenly you realize that the Great Commission is not optional. It is necessary.

As Adrian Rogers once said, “We are not called to be a reservoir of God’s blessing, but a channel of God’s blessing.” In other words, the grace God gives us is not meant to stop with us. It is meant to move through us so that others may hear the good news of Christ.

So when Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” He is not introducing a new idea. He is inviting the church to step into the story God has been writing from the very beginning.

The promise to Abraham, the prophecy in Isaiah, and the fulfillment in Christ now become the commission of the church. And the question for every church and every believer is simple. Will we join God in what He has been doing all along?

As we think about all of this, If God’s plan has always been to bring salvation to the nations, and if Christ has now commissioned His church to make disciples of all nations, then what does that actually mean for us?

I think it helps to think about our response in a few simple ways.

First, we pray.

When you read passages like Book of Isaiah 49:6, where God says that His salvation will reach to the ends of the earth, it becomes difficult to keep our prayers small. It pushes us beyond praying only about our own lives, our schedules, and our immediate concerns. Instead, we begin praying that the gospel would go to people who have never heard it. We begin asking God to raise up workers, to open doors for the gospel, and to draw people to Christ in places we may never personally visit.

Prayer reminds us that the mission ultimately belongs to God. We participate in it, but He is the one accomplishing it.

Second, we send.

Not every believer will move to another country or another culture, but every believer can participate in the work of missions by supporting those who do. When a church gives faithfully, encourages missionaries, and invests resources in the spread of the gospel, it is actively participating in the mission of God.

In that sense, generosity is not simply financial stewardship. It is partnership in the spread of the gospel.

As Adrian Rogers once said, “We have been commanded to go, but we have also been commanded to give so that others may go.” The church moves forward when both of those things happen together.

Third, we go.

Not everyone will cross an ocean, but everyone crosses a street. The call to make disciples begins right where we are. It begins with neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and the people God places in our everyday lives.

At the same time, there are moments when God calls certain people to go farther. Throughout church history, God has stirred the hearts of ordinary believers and sent them to places they never imagined going.

I had the opportunity through the SEND Network to listen to a missionary who described the moment he sensed God calling him overseas. For years he had assumed that missions was something other people did. He had a stable job, a comfortable routine, and a life that made sense. But the more he read Scripture and prayed, the more he began to realize that God might be asking him to step outside of what felt comfortable.

Eventually he said yes. Years later he found himself standing in a remote village explaining the gospel to people who had never heard the name of Jesus before.

Stories like that remind us that God is still calling people today.

Some will pray. Some will send. Some will go.

But all of us have a role in the mission God began long ago. From Abraham, to Isaiah, to Christ, and now to the church, the story has always been moving in the same direction. God is gathering a people from every nation who will one day stand before His throne and worship the Lamb.

As we bring this to a close, I want you to see the weight and the beauty of what we have just walked through.

From the very beginning of the Bible, God has been moving toward the nations. In the garden He promised that a deliverer would come. With Abraham He promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed. Through the prophets He said that His Servant would be a light to the nations. And then Jesus came, accomplished salvation through His death and resurrection, and told His followers to go and make disciples of all nations.

This is not a side story in the Bible. This is the story of the Bible.

And the remarkable thing is that God has invited His church to be part of it.

So the question this morning is not simply, “Is missions important?” The Bible has already answered that. The question is this: what is the next step of obedience for you?

For some of you, the next step may be the first step: salvation. You have heard the gospel, you understand that Christ died for sinners and rose again, but you have never personally surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to fully know everything to fully surrender to Jesus. Before we talk about taking the gospel to the nations, you need to receive the gospel yourself.

For others, the step may be baptism. Baptism does not save us, but it is the outward expression of an inward change and you are saying that we belong to Christ. It is the second step of obedience for someone who has trusted in Him.

For some of you, the next step may simply be engagement. Maybe God is stirring your heart to pray more intentionally for the spread of the gospel. Maybe He is prompting you to become more invested in sending and supporting missionaries. Maybe He is calling you to begin sharing Christ more boldly with the people already in your life.

And it is also possible that for someone here this morning, God may be planting something deeper in your heart. You may begin sensing that He is calling you to go. Not everyone will cross an ocean, but throughout history God has called ordinary believers to take the gospel to places where Christ is not yet known. If God begins stirring that in your heart, do not ignore it.

In just a moment we are going to sing one more song together. While we sing, this will be a time to respond. If God is leading you to take a step of obedience, you are welcome to come forward. I will be here, and some of our leaders will be here as well. We would love to pray with you, talk with you, or help you think through whatever step God may be placing in front of you.

There is no pressure, and there is no spotlight. This is simply an opportunity to respond to what God may be doing in your heart.

And after we finish singing, we are going to celebrate one of the most beautiful pictures of the gospel that Christ gave to the church.

We will celebrate the ordinance of baptism. Baptism reminds us that because of Jesus, sinners are made new. The old life is buried, and a new life begins.

This baptism is especially meaningful for me and my family.

The young man being baptized today is my son.

For the last couple of years he has been asking me about baptism. More than once he has come to me and said, “Dad, I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus. Why can’t I be baptized?” And like any dad who is also a pastor, I wanted to make sure he really understood the gospel. I wanted to make sure this wasn’t just a moment or something he felt pressure to do. So we kept talking. We kept walking through what the Bible says about sin, about repentance, about faith in Christ.

And a couple of months back, he asked why he couldn’t be baptized.

And honestly, I’ve run out of reasons to tell him to wait.

So today he is being baptized.

But there is another reason this day is meaningful for our family.

Ten years ago, on this exact date, my wife Blair was diagnosed with cancer. During that time, her oncologist told her that she neeed to have an abortion tog et the standard medical care she needed. That was the medical advice that was given.

That wasn’t an option for her, she didn’t even think about it.

And now, ten years later to the very day, the young man that a doctor once said should never be born is standing here today publicly proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of his life.

Only God writes stories like that.

Moments like this remind us that the gospel is not just something we preach about. It is something that changes lives. It is something that brings life where the world says there should be none.

Today we get to watch a young man confess Christ publicly and step into the waters of baptism. And as we do, we are reminded that God is still saving people. He is still calling people. He is still building His church from every tribe, every language, and every nation.

So let us go to the Lord in prayer.